Bareil Antos was a prominent Bajoran spiritual leader during the years immediately after the Cardassian Occupation. He was the leading candidate to become the next kai after Opaka, but withdrew his candidacy shortly before the election took place, clearing the way for the elevation of Winn Adami to kai. He later played an important role in the negotiation of the first Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty, and died during the negotiations.

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At the age of five, Bareil met a Bajoran monk who grabbed him the first time on his ear, to feel his pagh. As a chronic misbehaver, Bareil became his favorite victim and the monk was able to "virtually squeeze the pagh out of his ear with his thumb and forefinger." (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

After the disappearance of Kai Opaka in 2369, Bareil became the leading candidate to replace her in that role. Bareil spent the time before the election in seclusion, but was drawn to space stationDeep Space 9 by his opponent, Winn Adami. He decided to visit the station after a school run by Keiko O'Brien was bombed by Bajoran fundamentalists who were against her teaching that the wormhole prophets were aliens. Bareil hoped to act as a peace mediator. While Bareil was aboard the station, Neela, a Bajoran crewmember of DS9, attempted to assassinate him. The assassination attempt was really engineered by Vedek Winn, who wished to be kai and who wanted to eliminate her rival, Bareil. The attempt failed and Bareil was favored to be the next kai. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

When Bareil was tied to the infamous Kendra Valley Massacre, he withdrew from consideration for kai, and Vedek Winn was elected. No one knew that Bareil had taken the blame for Kai Opaka's role in the massacre. She had allowed her own son and 42 other Bajorans to be killed during the Occupation to prevent over 1,200 deaths in the Kendra Valley. Bareil took the fall to protect Opaka's memory. (DS9: "The Collaborator")

The idea of having Bareil be falsely accused of collaborating with the Cardassians was inspired by a brief story pitch which was suggested by Gary Holland. The plot concept focused on a Bajoran man who, although not Bareil himself, had some similarities to how Bareil is depicted in the final version of "The Collaborator". "'My' Bajoran had a past and a secret that Kira had to discover," stated Holland, pointing out two of the likenesses. Also, the man's discretion regarding the secret crime, which was the murder of Kira's father, was because he was covering for someone else. It was Ira Steven Behr who changed the character to Bareil, also making the crime be one of collaboration. "We had talked all year about Bareil becoming the next kai," remembered Behr. "All year! And during this conversation, we started talking about a collaborator, and I suddenly realized, 'We don't want Bareil as the kai. What the hell good is that going to do to us? He's a friend, and he's not going to cause any trouble for the Federation.'" (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 147)

In 2371, Bareil visited the station to celebrate the Bajoran Gratitude Festival. He became infected by Zanthi fever, which Lwaxana Troi had transmitted to those at the station party. This caused misplaced amorousness in people who had been near her, and caused latent, subconscious attraction to others. Bareil amorously chased Dax, became jealous of Benjamin Sisko, and hit Sisko; Dax subsequently punched Bareil. DoctorBashir was able to cure him of the fever. (DS9: "Fascination")

After the election, Bareil joined Winn as her key adviser in negotiating the Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty. Bareil negotiated for five months with LegateTurrel. Just before the final treaty negotiations, he was injured in a plasma explosion on board a Bajoran transport vessel. Dr. Bashir was able to bring him back from the brink of death, but needed to expose him to dangerous levels of neurogenic radiation in order to do so. Bashir told the vedek that he should be placed in stasis for an indefinite period of time, until a cure for the radiation damage could be developed. Bareil insisted that Bashir find another solution, so he could remain conscious to help Winn. Bareil believed it was the Prophets who spared him in the explosion so that he could ensure the success of the peace talks. Dr. Bashir, on the orders of Bareil, gave him an experimental drug that let him function for a few days. However, the drug did irreversible damage to the vedek's organs, leading to their replacement with implants. In spite of this, the damage spread, destroying part of his brain. At Kira's urging, Bashir replaced the damaged brain region with an artificial positronic implant, so that Bareil could continue to advise Winn. Soon after the peace treaty was signed, the remainder of Bareil's brain was destroyed. After Bashir gently refused to proceed with any further surgeries, saying he would fight Kira if he had to, Kira and Bashir decided to allow him to die, rather than replace his entire brain with a machine, for Bashir believed that, though Bareil would still look and talk like his old self, he wouldn't be himself. (DS9: "Life Support")

Even after becoming a vedek, Bareil still loved to tend his garden. He also enjoyed playing springball. (DS9: "Shadowplay") He became romantically involved with Major Kira Nerys in 2370, after meeting her during a visit to Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Shadowplay")

During the attempted coup led by Jaro Essa, Bareil and Kira's relationship started to blossom. After Kira was dismissed by Jaro from the space station, she stayed at Bareil's monastery. On Bajor, Kira and Bareil grew close, and Bareil allowed Kira to consult one of the Bajoran Orbs for guidance. She had a vision that showed her and Bareil as lovers. (DS9: "The Circle") Bareil and Kira became lovers until his death. (DS9: "The Siege", "Life Support")

While DS9: "The Collaborator" was being scripted, intimate aspects of Bareil's relationship with Kira were removed from early drafts of the script. Gary Holland felt strongly that what Bareil was undergoing elsewhere in the installment would seem to be of more concern to Kira if the episode portrayed exactly how close they had become and the producers ultimately agreed with him, allowing for the previously excised elements to be reinstated. Holland also argued for Orb scenes involving Bareil to be in the episode. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, pp. 147-148)

The DS9 writing staff became dissatisfied with Bareil's relationship with Kira by the time the third season episode "Defiant" was being written. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 98) Finishing his romance with Kira proved to be one motive for writing the character of Bareil out of the series, in the later Season 3 installment "Life Support". "This Bareil relationship, which should have been deepening the Kira character, did not seem to be fulfilling that requirement," related Ira Steven Behr. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) Ronald D. Moore added, "We came to the conclusion that it was time to move away from the Bareil/Kira relationship anyway, because some people loved it, some fans, but we just didn't see it going anywhere. It didn't seem to have a lot of magnetism coming across on screen. Once that decision was made, that changed the whole complexion of the show." Robert Hewitt Wolfe commented that Bareil's importance in Kira's life meant his death had an impact on the viewers. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90)

Nonetheless, the decision to kill the character of Bareil had been made, partly because there was no impression in the DS9 production offices of him being a particular favorite with the show's fans. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 204) "I just felt that no one was dying to do a Bareil show," explained Ira Steven Behr. "We never got letters from fans saying 'We love Bareil' [....] No one was losing sleep over Bareil. It just wasn't clicking." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) Ron Moore concurred, "He served his purpose for a while, and then we felt that the character [...] had run out of steam." (AOL chat,1997) Moore was actually instrumental in devising Bareil's death. "I killed Bareil," he announced. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 204) With a laugh, Bashir actor Alexander Siddig theorized, "Philip Anglim [...] was making so many noises about leaving, that I think they just did him a favor and did it." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 43) As such, Bareil joined a long line of recurring characters (including K'Ehleyr and James T. Kirk) that Moore had killed off. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 204) In a manner that may have been only half joking, Robert Hewitt Wolfe declared, "Ron butchered my character, what can I say? [....] That's a character payment I'll never see again." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90)

Philip Anglim was given little notification of Bareil's demise. "He didn't know, pretty much until he got the script, and that was that," noted Alexander Siddig. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4/5, p. 43)

Although fans didn't initially respond much to Bareil, the audience had (in the words of Robert Wolfe) "gotten to know Bareil" by the time he was killed off in "Life Support". (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106; Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90) Fan mail regarded the character in an extremely positive light after his life and recurring appearances were terminated. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) In fact, Bareil proved so popular with fans that there was a campaign to bring him back. Following the initial broadcast of "Life Support", the DS9 producers received lots of fan mail from a group they had previously neither heard of nor from: The Friends of Vedek Bareil. "We got pictures of a bunch of people at a memorial service for Bareil," René Echevarria acknowledged. "Very somber. Angry letters." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 204) The complaints over the death of Bareil were long-standing, moreso than protests against a same-sex kiss in DS9 Season 4 installment "Rejoined". At about the end of the fourth season (in 1996), Robert Wolfe remarked, "The Bareil fans still write us letters." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 108) In March 1997 (prior to the airing of "Resurrection"), Ron Moore responded to the fan grievances, "I'm afraid that the truth is that the writing staff simply isn't interested in Vedek Bareil [....] We can't really bring him back unless we, the writers, suddenly find a [...] passion for the character and I don't think that's going to happen. The show is ultimately an expression of our particular likes and dislikes and unfortunately Bareil is not one of those 'likes.' The show has moved on and so has Kira." (AOL chat,1997)

When "Resurrection" was under development, however, Ira Steven Behr started to feel a compulsion to temporarily return Bareil to the series. Behr later admitted about the episode, "Finally I said, 'It's a show that seems to be saying, make me a Bareil show, so let's just make it a Bareil show.'" (Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 44) Behr decided to do so by resurrecting Bareil, mirror-universe style. Though Kira actress Nana Visitor felt revisiting the romance between Kira and her late lover was slightly odd, it was not the case that she disliked the Bareil character. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 508)